GSCOPE 2014 @ OSU

We are pleased to invite proposals for the 8th annual meeting of the Graduate Student Conference on Philosophy and Education. This year GSCOPE will be held at the The Ohio State University from October 10th – 11th, 2014 in the historic Ramseyer Hall, a former Dewey-inspired lab school that now houses the OSU Philosophy of Education program. The keynote address will be sponsored by the Boyd H. Bode Memorial Lecture and will take place on October 10th. The Memorial Lecture will be held by Dr. Paul Standish, professor and head of the Philosophy of Education section at the Institute of Education at the University of London and associate editor of the Journal of Philosophy of Education .

Two powerful cultural forces shape education today. The insatiable, ever-evolving needs of the marketplace demand that students enter the workforce with specific cognitive skills and habits of thought, and the educational system is expected to deliver on this demand. Rigid structures of accountability – from high-stakes, standardized tests to value-added teacher evaluations – are implemented to guarantee that students have indeed acquired the necessary competencies. Yet there exists another force in our society which may challenge the rigidity of accountability structures and the importunity of market demands, just as it has challenged our way of interacting with the world in general. Community-based internet technologies have begun to bore their way into classrooms around the world, and educators, reformists, TED-Talkers and enthusiasts, not to mention entrepreneurs and businesses, have hailed their arrival. According to their proponents, these technologies mark the dawn of a new age of creative learning. But what do philosophers and theorists of education have to say about these technologies? Can blogs, forums, wikis, tweets, MOOCs, apps, i-pads and Google Glasses provide a medium for students' creative potential finally to unfurl, displacing the rigid accountability model of education that has become ubiquitous since the enactment of No Child Left Behind? Can they provide students with new, democratic modes of interaction, cooperation and dialogue? Can they liberate teachers from antiquated teaching styles that perpetuate student disengagement? Or do these technologies have the opposite effect? Are they yet another example of the market’s usurpation of educational aims? Do they narrow students’ engagement, coordination and creativity with the people and things in their immediate environment? Do they offer teachers’ all-too-tempting forms of “edutainment” so that unimaginative curriculum persists under a sleek and colorful guise? Do they foster technological fetishism and vulgar instrumentalism? And if these sets of questions are too one-sided, how then are we to use technology in the classroom appropriately for our democratic educational aims?

The proliferation of educational technologies in contemporary education gives us cause to revisit some of the fundamental questions of educational philosophy, political theory and sociology. Applicants are encouraged to broach these types of questions in their research as well: What kind of dialogue is necessary for a flourishing democracy? What role should the consumer market play in education, and who ought to participate in setting educational aims? How should we conceive of educational aims in general? What is the relationship between students’ interests, motivation, academic challenge and care? Finally, what philosophers and theorists should we look to for educational inspiration?

GSCOPE would like to invite graduate scholars in philosophy of education, curriculum theory, cultural and social foundations of education, as well as in related fields such as philosophy, sociology, history, anthropology, feminist studies and comparative literature to join in the conversation on improving education today. We welcome quality submissions on all topics in philosophy and education.

Submission and Registration Instructions

Proposals may be submitted through the Open Journal System at: http://journal.tc-library.org/index.php/gscope. Instructions for submission can be found at the bottom of the website. Submissions may include either (1) a manuscript (not to exceed 3500 words), (2) a presentation proposal (between 500-1000 words), or (3) a panel proposal (not to exceed 750 words). All submissions must include a cover sheet with author’s name, phone number, email, institutional affiliation and program, type of submission (manuscript, presentation, or panel), title, a 120-150 word abstract, and 3-5 keywords. The deadline for submissions is July 1, 2014, and decisions will be returned by July 21, 2014. Presenters will be encouraged to deliver the key arguments and ideas from their manuscripts or proposals at the conference, rather than reading from them. Please direct all questions concerning GSCOPE 2014 to officer.gscope@gmail.com or yacek.1@osu.edu.

To register for the conference, please send an email to officer.gscope@gmail.com with "GSCOPE 2014 Registration" in the subject line and your name, phone number, email address, and institutional affiliation and program in the body of the email. You will automatically be registered for the conference if you submit.

Location and Lodging

Ramseyer Hall

All conference sessions will be held on the first floor of Ramseyer Hall: 29 W Woodruff Ave Columbus, OH 43210. See the map on the right. The closest budget lodging by campus is the Red Roof Inn at 441 Ackerman Rd. Columbus, OH 43202. Free parking can be found on Woodruff Ave east of High Street, and there should be more than enough open spots on Saturday. For the Friday, it is recommended that you park by Iuka Park. Take a left off of 4th street (if you're heading North) on to Iuka Ave. Drive down a ways on Iuka Avenue until you come to a quick left turn and take it (if you drive straight you will come to Summit St. and exit the park). Then drive straight for a 100 yards until you go under one bridge (Summit St.) and find a spot by the other parked cars. After parking, walk the rest of the way down Iuka Avenue until you go under another bridge (Indianola Ave.) and come to Woodruff. Walk straight and it'll be about a 6 minute walk down Woodruff until you hit Ramseyer Hall. Here are google directions: http://goo.gl/maps/U4vxw